Raster image processing (RIP'ing) is the process of translating digital vector image data into bit-mapped image data or raster bits for rendering. Such vector image data is generally expressed in a Page Description Language (PDL) such as Printer Control Language® (PCL), Portable Document Format (PDF), or PostScript® (PS). In the printing field, one or more hardware and/or software implemented raster image process (RIP) engines are commonly used by print shops to RIP large print jobs or documents for printing on a printing press. When one or more RIP resources, which may be implemented across any number of computing devices, are configured to work on a particular print job the RIP resources can be collectively referred to as a pipeline.
When setting up a RIP management system to control some number of the RIP engines in a networked printing environment, an administrative entity must have beforehand knowledge of the particular RIP engines that are to be managed. Such beforehand knowledge is used to manually enter networking information, such as respective networked RIP engine internet addresses, etc., into the RIP management system. Without such manual configuration techniques, existing RIP management systems would not be able to communicate with and utilize networked RIP engines.
Such manual configuration of RIP management system is problematic. For example, manual configuration of a RIP management system is not only time consuming and labor intensive, but it is also error prone and subject to implementation delays that may not meet the often-changing workflow needs of a print shop. Techniques to overcome these limitations of existing RIP management system configuration techniques are greatly desired.